


Stay Close To Me

by GhostFox, Sweetferret



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Halloween, M/M, hand holding, haunted corn maze
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 09:44:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15021923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostFox/pseuds/GhostFox, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetferret/pseuds/Sweetferret
Summary: The current members of the Volleyball Club are invited to a Hunted Corn Maze where the graduated members are working. Hinata only expects to have a good time and get somewhat scared, but things take a different turn when once inside Kageyama tells him a secret.





	Stay Close To Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This was written based on a request sent to our writing blog! The line requested was "I won't let anything bad happen to you" and this is the result. Hope you like it!!

Halloween is one of Hinata’s favorite holidays, being surpassed only by Christmas with its presents and good food. He usually spends it dressed in silly costumes with Natsu, going to the small parade near their house where they get to see silly looking monsters in zip up suits and kids eating fistfulls of candy while their parents aren’t looking.

This year though, it’s a bit different. Sugawara had told the team that he, Asahi, and Daichi would be working in a haunted maze and invited them all to go. Without hesitation he accepted, excited to see his old teammates again.

It wasn’t a surprise for him that Tanaka and Noya were immediately down for it, and even if it took more work to convince Kageyama, he was happy with the way things were going. 

How scary could a maze be anyways? 

\---

Looking at the big sign announcing the entrance to the carnival, Hinata realizes that at night and with real costumes and make up, a corn maze can in fact look pretty scary. 

The sun was barely setting when they arrived, taking away from the atmosphere of the area. In the orange light the walls were just hastily painted particle board, the characters were just people in cheap grease makeup, and the corn was, well, just corn, with bits of light peeking out between the closely grown stalks. It felt campy and fun, and all around them was laughter and camera flashes as people took pictures with the characters patrolling around. 

Kageyama, however, was tense by Hinata’s side, and it only grew worse as that last bit of sunlight disappeared and the dim area lights were switched on, suddenly making everything seem just a bit more real.

“Well, we’ve got the House of Horrors or Circus Creepshow. Which one do you guys wanna hit first?” Tanaka asks, reading a flyer and pointing toward the entrances to both mazes. 

“Which do you think everyone is working in?” Noya stands on his tiptoes and peers over toward the Creepshow entrance, as if he could see over the corn and pinpoint one of his senpai. 

“Guess we gotta do both to find out!” Hinata grabs Kageyama’s arm and marches toward one of the lines, surprised at the fact that he doesn’t automatically pull away like usual. It must be his nerves, because Hinata can feel him slightly trembling beneath his grasp. He smiles mischievously to himself, hoping to get some good pranks in on scaredy cat Kageyama later. 

The line for the House of Horrors is shorter, so they start there. While they wait in line the boys talk and laugh with each other, deflecting the anticipation of being scared with humor and false bravery, but Kageyama remains quiet save for a few grunts and one word responses. Hinata notices him nervously watching one of the characters, a clown with tattered clothes and sharp yellowed teeth, who walks up and down the line, sometimes stopping and whispering in people’s ears, making them scream and hide behind their friends. As the clown draws near them they reach the front of the line, and Kageyama lets out an audible sigh of relief as the group is shepherded into the corn and away from the clown. 

The relief doesn’t last long, though. All four boys go rigid as they see the stretch of corn before them like unmarked walls. The noise from the crowd behind them seems to disappear, and they are alone in the dark with nowhere to go but forward. 

“Let’s go!” Noya says, with much less excitement than usual as he begins to walk forward. The others follow, and Hinata feels Kageyama reach forward and grab his arm.

“Ow!” He hisses, and Kageyama loosens his grip but doesn’t let go. 

“Sorry. Just don’t wanna get lost,” he whispers. 

The corn stretches on for what feels like too long, making a voice whisper in the back of Hinata’s mind telling him that they took a wrong turn somewhere and now they’re really lost, miles away from the carnival and the safety of actors dressed as monsters. Out here it feels like real monsters could slip right in and never be found out.

After another turn, they come to a stop. A house sits before them, completely surrounded by corn so they can’t slip past, with the windows boarded up and the door slightly open. 

“Looks like a nice little place,” Tanaka says, trying to hide the waver in his voice. “Go on in, you two.”

“What? You go first!” Hinata argues, taking a step back and bumping into Kageyama. “You’re the senpai!” 

“That’s why we go behind. Like security.”

Hinata opens his mouth to argue back but freezes as something moves past a gap in the boards on one of the windows. Kageyama’s grasp tightens on his arm, but he doesn’t say anything. 

“This is stupid,” Kageyama growls, “I want to go back.”

His words suddenly fill Hinata with a false courage, turning this back into something fun. If Kageyama is afraid then he can be the brave one, and everything will seem less scary. 

“Oh? I didn’t expect you to be scared by this kind of thing,” Hinata says, wiggling his eyebrows and laughing as Kageyama glares at him. 

“Fine, fine, we’ll go ahead,” Noya says, patting Kageyama on the shoulder. “Anything for our poor, scared, little kouhai.”

Kageyama doesn’t protest, just glares more in Noya’s direction, the expression falling immediately as he and Tanaka pull open the door and slip into the house. They watch their shapes move quickly past the window and disappear. A few seconds of silence pass, and Hinata opens his mouth to speak. 

“We should probably he-,”

He’s interrupted by a scream deep inside the house, his heart crawling into his throat. 

“That’s them! We have to go in!” He tries to run forward but Kageyama pulls back on his arm. 

“What? No! We can’t go in there! What if something got them?”

“Then we have to help them! Come  _ on _ , Kageyama!”

Squeezing his eye shut and shaking his head Kageyama allows Hinata to lead him into the house, his fingers digging into his arm so harshly it makes him clench his jaw. The house is dim inside, the furniture dusty and dirty, like someone had vanished from it years ago in the middle of daily life. Hinata sees the back door open just through the kitchen, but as they turn the corner the dining room becomes visible, stopping Hinata in his tracks. The table is littered with body parts, all strewn haphazardly across plates and in bowls, dripping blood onto the floor with heavy splats. 

“Oh god,” Kageyama whispers, putting a hand to his mouth. “Keep going, just keep going, please.”

“Okay, okay,” Hinata nods, tearing his eyes away from the scene and shuffling forward, but before they can reach the door a man in bloodstained clothes pops out from the hallway, brandishing a rusty saw, just as messy and dripping as the table. 

“Nice of you boys to join me for dinner,” the man smiles, walking towards them, “why don’t you have a SEAT!” On the last word he lunges forward, and Kageyama screams. Suddenly his grip is gone from Hinata’s arm, and he doesn’t know where to turn between the man laughing maniacally in front of him and his friend sprinting out the back door. 

“Sorry, we ate before coming!” Hinata yells, turning on his heels and running after Kageyama. He figures he must have met up with Tanaka and Noya somewhere up ahead, but when he finds Kageyama squatting with his head in his hands, their senpai are nowhere to be found. 

Hinata kneels down beside him, holding a hand to his chest to feel his own racing heart. “That guy really got me,” he says, smiling now that the threat is gone and he can just feel his adrenaline pumping. “Let’s keep going and see what’s next!”

Kageyama just shakes his head, refusing to stand or look at Hinata. “Go ahead. I’ll stay here.”

“You can’t get to the end if you just stay still,” Hinata laughs, standing and reaching for Kageyama’s arm to pull him up. 

“Then I won’t. I’ll wait until morning when the sun is out and all the people are gone.”

Hinata puts a hand to his mouth to stop his laughter from escaping. He doesn’t want Kageyama to murder him and leave him here in the corn for the monsters to feed on. “Fine, stay here all alone then,” he says, putting a lilt to his words to make them playful. “All night all by yourself. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

He starts to move away but Kageyama still doesn’t move, curling tighter in on himself. If that didn’t work, Hinata figures he’ll have to pull out the big guns. 

“I guess you’ll have to miss volleyball practice in the morning. Since you’ll be wandering through corn instead.” He expects Kageyama’s head to snap up, but he doesn’t act as if he heard Hinata at all. 

Something must be seriously wrong, so Hinata returns to his side.

“Kageyama? Are you alright?”

Still no answer.

Hinata kneels now, concerned by this odd behavior and forgetting everything about monsters and murders. He hears Kageyama’s breath coming out raspy and sniffling.

“Are you… crying?” he asks, all playful tone gone. He moves and places himself in front of Kageyama, leaning down and trying to see his face. Maybe he was one of those people that cried when scared.

“No,” he finally says. Even with his voice muffled by his hands that small word is enough for Hinata to know that if he wasn’t already, he was close to tears.

Hinata tilts his head in surprise. He never expected Kageyama to be scared of this sort of stuff, but just like he  _ feared _ snakes with all his being, Kageyama’s fear… isn’t all that strange. 

“It’s okay if you’re scared y’know? But… why didn’t you say so before? You could have waited with Yachi and Yamaguchi outside,” Hinata says, voice calm as if he were talking to Natsu.

“And hang around with that ugly ass clown? No, thanks.” 

Hinata holds in a giggle, not wanting Kageyama to shut down again. “Well, we have to get out of here sometime or more creepy dudes will come to scare us off.” Hesitating a little before reaching out his hand, he takes one of Kageyama’s arms and gently tries to pull it away from his face.

He doesn’t budge. 

Pouting a little, Hinata thinks on his next move. At least Kageyama's breathing is even now. 

“Hey, I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Trust me, just like I do when you toss!” Hinata smiles to himself. This is so weird; not bad weird, he feels like warm jelly inside, but it’s weird nevertheless.

Kageyama looks up, his eyes are glazed over and his nose is red, but he remains calm as he holds Hinata’s stare. He’s so defenseless, a completely different Kageyama than the one he’s used to see when playing volleyball. 

“Here.” Hinata holds out his hands to Kageyama. “Natsu takes my hand when she’s scared, so…” he lets the words linger, hoping Kageyama won’t be weirded out by the suggestion. 

“Are you fine with that?” Kageyama’s voice regains some normalcy, but the lump in his throat can still be heard. 

“Yeah, as long as you want.” Hinata smiles warmly, cheeks a bit warm. 

When Kageyama takes his hand Hinata feels like a million butterflies broke their cocoons inside his stomach at the same time. His hand is smaller than Kageyama’s, a little colder too now that it’s surrounded by it, but it feels so nice. 

“A-Alright, let’s get going.” 

Both stand and continue their way through the maze, creepy sounds louder with each step they take. Hinata walks a little ahead of Kageyama in case something jumps out, but near enough so their hands don’t get separated. 

A laugh almost resembling a shriek comes from some kind of construction in the distance, and Kageyama’s hand squeezes Hinata’s, his body approaching so close Hinata can hear Kageyama's breath quicken. 

“I’m sure it’s only a recording,” Hinata comments, calming both Kageyama and himself. His heart beats a mile per hour, spurred both by the uncertainty of what’s ahead and Kageyama’s closeness. 

The shriek sounds again as they continue, getting louder and louder until they find the source: a long metal trailer with a door hanging off its hinges. The shriek stops as they approach the door, and Hinata gives Kageyama’s hand a reassuring squeeze. 

“Ready?” He asks, and Kageyama gulps before nodding. 

As they step inside, Hinata’s heart jumps into his throat, but he tries his best to swallow it down, he needs to show Kageyama he really can count on him. The trailer is pitch dark, even the dim glow of the lights outside streaming in through the broken door failing to cut through the darkness. They continue forward slowly, trying to ignore the growing tension as nothing pops out of any corners and no noise breaks the silence as they feel their way through the area.. 

Hinata sees a stream of light ahead coming from what seems to be the only exit, a skylight above a bathroom sink. He feels a little disappointed that the room wasn’t scarier, but pushes the thought away as he feels Kageyama breathe a sigh of relief beside him. 

“I guess we’re supposed to climb out through here?” Hinata says, looking up and seeing the starry sky above them. “You can boost me onto the counter and then I’ll help pull you-,”

“Only one of you can make it out of here.”

Hinata’s blood goes cold, hot breath accompanying the words as something materializes from the darkness and whispers in his ear. He turns, seeing only a shape and a glint of something silver in their hand, and his stomach lurches. 

“GO, KAGEYAMA, GO!” He screams, tugging on Kageyama’s hand and shoving him at the bathroom counter. 

“But you’ll-,” Kageyama protests, eyes wide and reflecting stars like twinkles of fear. 

“I’LL BE FINE, JUST GO!”

Kageyama let’s go of his hand and climbs onto the counter, easily pulling himself out of the skylight above. Hinata scrambles after him, feeling hot breath across the back of his neck as he climbs onto the counter with less ease than Kageyama and grabs onto the rim of the skylight. He hops, grabbing onto the roof but only managing to pull himself out up to his shoulders, legs dangling in the trailer beneath him. 

Kageyama grabs onto his arms, pulling him up and onto the roof of the trailer. He barely has a moment to catch his breath before the shrieking sound returns and they both bolt down the stairs on the opposite side of the trailer and back into a stretch of plain corn-lined path. 

Hinata pauses to catch his breath, but Kageyama grabs his hand again and tugs him forward. “Don’t stop, let’s just keep running. Don’t look back.”

Kageyama’s eyes are wide, pleading, and Hinata nods. “Alright. Let’s go.” 

Hinata takes the lead and starts to run, pulling Kageyama behind him. They don’t stop, bursting through the door of each construction in the path and rushing past monsters and murderers who barely get out half of their dialogue before the boys are out the back door and onto the next area. 

After what feels like hours, their lungs burning and legs pleading for them to stop, they come to a large wrought iron gate. Beyond it, past more corn, they can see the carnival full of laughing people eating candy corn and skirting away from patrolling monsters; their salvation. 

“The exit is right up there,” Kageyama says, panting. “Why is this gate here?”

“What if we took too long and,” Hinata pauses to breathe, “We got locked in?” He points to a thick metal chain holding the gate closed with a rusty metal lock. 

Kageyama opens his mouth to reply, but is cut off by the metal jingle of keys as a shape emerges from the corn. The shape steps into the light, revealing a plague doctor’s mask beneath a long, thick black cloak. In one hand it carries a ring of keys, twirling them on one finger to taunt them, and in the other it drags a long metal axe across the dirt. 

Kageyama’s face turns white and he ducks behind Hinata, trying to make himself small enough to hide behind the smaller boy. Hinata’s heart pounds in his chest so hard he can no longer tell if it’s from running or fear. His words repeat in his head as he tightens his grip on Kageyama’s hand.  _ I won’t let anything bad happen to you _ . He’d meant what he said, and he wasn’t going to fail with the exit so near. 

The plague doctor steps closer, painstakingly slow, his axe making a horrible scraping sound behind him. Hinata steels himself, holding his ground as the gap between them grows smaller and smaller. The plague doctor stops in front of him, leaning down to bring his beak closer and closer, and Hinata jumps to action, kicking hard up and between where he thinks the creature’s legs should be. 

The plague doctor lets out a loud, very human, “oof” and buckles to the ground, gripping it’s cloak and bringing its knees to its chest. The keys fly in one direction, and the mask in the other, revealing a familiar face. 

“Daichi-san?” Hinata and Kageyama yell in unison, dropping to their knees beside their former captain. 

The corn rustles beside them and they jump to their feet, but another familiar face appears as Suga emerges with a plastic saw blade in one hand and a werewolf mask in the other. 

“Oh god, guys, that’s the best thing I’ve seen all night,” he laughs, doubling over and clutching his stomach with the saw blade hand. “Take the keys and get out of here.”

“But Daichi-,”

“He’ll be fine,” Suga laughs again, putting down his props and kneeling beside Daichi to put a hand on his shoulder. “You guys should go before another group catches up. Seeing some kids killing the plague doctor and werewolf isn’t exactly good for our branding.”

They nod, and Hinata mumbles an apology to Daichi before grabbing the keys and letting them out of the maze. 

Breathing deeply as he closes the gate, Hinata turns and looks at Kageyama staring back at him. Hinata can’t hold back his smile that quickly transform into a grin, and then he’s laughing. Kageyama snorts, forgetting everything about what they just escaped.

When Hinata’s breathing returns to normal, they finally move, starting to search for the others. 

“I never thought I’d see you kicking Daichi in the balls,” Kageyama comments, lips showing the tiniest of smiles. 

“Neither did I.” He snorts. “For my sake and, uh, Sawamura-san’s, I think it would be better if we didn’t tell the others about it thought,” Hinata says, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. 

“Yeah. And, could you, uh, also not...not comment about, you know…” 

As if on cue, a cry comes from the maze behind them, startling Kageyama and making him frown.

“That you’re a scaredy-cat?” Hinata grins, and evades Kageyama’s hands. “Of course, we have a deal.”

“Also… thank you.”

“Mh?”

“I appreciate you… helping me back there and not laughing.” Kageyama looks to the ground. 

“You’re very much welcome.” 

Kageyama opens his mouth to talk again, but immediately closes it as Tanaka and Nishinoya run to them, shouting questions about what happened in the haunted house and where they disappeared to. 

Hinata tells them about the rusty saw man and the creepy trailer, but skirts around the parts where Kageyama got scared and Sawamura’s accident. Kageyama at his side doesn’t talk unless he’s asked directly, and seems relieved when Hinata finishes telling the story. 

Tanaka and Noya also tell them about their experience when they join the others waiting for them, but Hinata can’t completely focus. He walks close enough to Kageyama that their hands brush once in a while, so he has to gather all his energy to stop himself from just taking it. 

His cheeks feel warmer as he comes to a realization. 

_ This crush has become a huge problem. I may like him more than I thought. _

He glances at Kageyama, who is already looking at him, and immediately his eyes dart elsewhere, trying to focus on Yachi talking. 

He’ll have to deal with that someday… but definitely not today.

**Author's Note:**

> Our writing blog is [foxesandferrets](http://foxesandferrets.tumblr.com) on tumblr, but we also have personal accounts [here](http://ghost--fox.tumblr.com) and [here](sweetferretxd.tumblr.com)!


End file.
